Warning: This article contains mentions of violence and addiction, as well as spoilers for American Horror Story: Double Feature.
Part of American Horror Story's appeal is its ability to put a fresh twist on tropes that have been recycled by the horror genre for decades. Alongside creating dynamic horror stories that are chock full of real American history, Ryan Murphy pulls inspiration from timeless works across genres to bring to the twisted storylines of the anthology.
Double Feature is no exception. There are quite a few classic works that breathe life into both parts of the season as they work extra hard to rewrite parts of American history with horrific curveballs to fit the show's narrative. Red Tide and Death Valley are both innovative stories that have been imbued by so many movies, books, and television shows that came before them.
Cape Fear
"Cape Fear" is the title of the first episode of Red Tide, in which the Gardner family moves to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This is also the title of Martin Scorsese's 1991 film Cape Fear, which stars American Horror Story veteran Jessica Lange.
While "Cape Fear" is a sensible name for the episode, which introduces the audience to the more horrifying side of Cape Code as the Gardner family settles down, it undoubtedly pays homage to Jessica Lange. Despite formally leaving the show six seasons ago, the Academy Award-winning actress remains an American Horror Story icon.
The Shining
In Stanley Kubrick's film, The Shining (and the Stephen King novel that came before it), a writer moves his family to a secluded town for the winter to remedy his writer block. Horror ensues. This happens to be exactly what takes place in Red Tide, with a vampiric twist.
Beyond the logline, fans of The Shining might easily catch onto this tribute. Shots of Harry typing away at his laptop mirror Jack Torrance doing the same on his typewriter in one of the best horror movies of all time. The season even results in Harry victimizing his wife, just as Jack does to Wendy. This is not the first time that Murphy has saluted the 1980 film, as Hotel naturally included a few references, such as nearly identical carpeting.
Salem's Lot
In Salem's Lot, a writer moves back to his hometown to write his novel and discovers that the town is developing a severe vampire problem. The story was adapted from Stephen King's novel as a television miniseries in 1979.
As what seems to be another tribute to a renowned Stephen King work, Red Tide follows Harry Gardner moving away to write and discovering similar bloodsucker issues in Provincetown. The difference is that in Jack Torrance fashion, Harry allows himself to be consumed by the horrors rather than fight them. A few shots in Red Tide even look like they could easily fit right into Tobe Hooper's creepy series.
Jaws
While smoking weed in "Pale," Mickey and TB Karen theorize about the plot of Jaws. Karen mentions that she met an extra in the movie, but when she questions if it may have been Jaws 2, Mickey says, "F**k Jaws 2. They shot that sh*t in Florida."
Steven Spielberg's film Jaws, one of the director's best movies, was shot in Cape Cod, so Karen meeting an extra and Mickey's passionate thoughts about the sequel's shooting location make sense. However, Jaws also set the precedent in horror that monsters do not have to be supernatural, bringing horror into the real world much like Red Tide tries to do. The shark-like teeth that Lark invents for the blood drinkers might even be symbolic of Jaws as the first perfectly real monster. Of course, there is also the shared element of horror by the shore.
House
In "Pale," Harry attempts to continue to write without the use of the black pills. Sitting at his laptop, he realizes that he needs the pills to perform. As he goes to get more, "Teardrop" by Massive Attack plays, which is the theme song from House.
This is an Easter egg that not every viewer will catch onto, but it provides a deeper sense of understanding about Harry for those that do. House is a genius doctor who is dependent on Vicodin to work. Without it, he cannot function, let alone tap into his genius. Playing the iconic House theme song as Harry realizes that he needs the pills to be a great writer brings the nature of his budding addiction to light.
Speed Racer
When Mickey decides to take the little black pills, he comes out with a sparkling script that leads Ursula to not only sign him but also get him a gig writing the new Speed Racer franchise that brings him fame and fortune.
The Speed Racer franchise has been around from the 1960s manga to the 2008 film by the Wachowski sisters. As an action/science-fiction franchise about automobile racing, its seemingly out-of-place inclusion in such a tonally dark story is the exact sort of niche reference that keeps American Horror Story fresh. Watching Mickey's journey from prostitution to picking Karen up in a Mach 5 replica is both ridiculous and effective.
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb
Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove is a Cold War Era comedy that follows White House officials as they attempt to prevent nuclear warfare by stopping an airstrike that is bound towards the Soviet Union due to a dangerous general.
Beyond Dr. Strangelove's era and a similar black and white style, in Death Valley, Calico says that Nixon loved Dr. Strangelove, and that is likely what led him to bring Kubrick on to direct the moon landing. This is a fitting development for Double Feature, which is teeming with Kubrick references, but also the series as a whole. In Dr. Strangelove, Peter Sellers played three different roles, much like how most of the American Horror Story cast plays different roles in different seasons, or sometimes, the same season.
The Day The Earth Stood Still
The Day The Earth Stood Still is a 1951 film about members of an alien race landing in Washington D.C. to speak with Earth's leaders about the Cold War, which holds some stark similarities to the plot of Death Valley.
Death Valley seems to pay homage to The Day The Earth Stood Still in both content and style. The season is shot in black and white, and it depicts alien interactions with officials of the United States government as they attempt to come to a peaceful agreement. The film focuses on U.S. officials during the Cold War, and Death Valley even centers around President Eisenhower, who was a Cold War president.
Gaslight
The fifth episode of Red Tide shares a name with the 1944 film by George Cukor, Gaslight. The film follows a wife whose husband makes her believe that the events she observes around her are only in her mind.
Similar to Cukor's work, in "Gaslight," Harry attempts to manipulate Doris into thinking that she is experiencing severe postpartum depression that is deeply affecting her. Cloudy POV shots in the episode show how every character goes out of their way to make Doris think that she is seeing things that are not actually happening, despite the audience knowing that everything that she sees is real– even her nine-year-old daughter feasting on her newborn.
The Fake Moon Landing
In the ninth episode of season 10, "Blue Moon," Death Valley explores one of the most notable conspiracy theories in American history with the plot point that the American moon landing was fake and that the footage was shot in a studio and directed by Stanley Kubrick.
While the moon landing may not be a work of fiction, the depiction of Kubrick's involvement in directing the event is a genuine theory that The Shining is rumored to have countless Easter egg allusions to, such as Danny's "Apollo 11" sweater. In including the fake moon landing as a near-ending point for Double Feature, Murphy pulls together Death Valley's alien-centric rewrite of American history with the Shining-inspired storyline of Red Tide, wrapping the entirety of the season up in a Kubrick-shaped bow.